By Karen Poh
THE number of criminal offences in Brimbank has fallen by 6 per cent, from 8376 to 7870 recorded offences, according to the Victoria Police 2006-07 Crime Statistics.
Overall, crime rates fell across the major categories: crime rates against a person (down 1 per cent), crimes against property (6.2 per cent), drug crimes (3 per cent) and other crime (11.5 per cent).
The State MP for Kororoit, Andre Haermeyer, said local police deserved a big thank you from the local community for a job well done.
“Over the last seven years, we have seen a consistent trend of falling crime rates in the West,” he said.
The community had also helped, taking better care of their property and possessions and reporting suspicious behaviour to police, Mr Haermeyer said.
“For example, police have been targeting car theft hotspots and making people aware of the need to lock their cars, to fit immobilisers and to remove any valuables from cars. People have heeded that message,” he said.
But the statistics did show a rise in property damage (up 11.4 per cent), robbery (25.6 per cent), homicide (122.7 per cent) and rape (100.7 per cent).
“(This) will require close attention in the future,” Mr Haermeyer said.
But he said the 100 per cent rise in reports of rape in Brimbank did not necessarily indicate an increase in the number of rapes in the community over the last year.
“It is indicative of proactive measures being undertaken by police and community and health agencies to encourage people to report rape and family violence,” Mr Haermeyer said.
The Opposition’s spokesman on Police and Emergency Services, Andrew McIntosh, agreed.
“Anecdotally, rape is a crime which is chronically under-reported, much of it having to do with the considerable trauma associated with the prosecution and court processes,” he said.
“While we should never accept rape as anything but a serious crime and do all in our power to minimise its incidence, numerous police inform me … that the rise in rape is due to more ‘historic’ rapes being reported in the current period,” he said.
In other parts of the West, crime fell in Melton (0.9 per cent) and Maribyrnong (5.7 per cent), but saw an increase in Hobsons Bay (6.9 per cent) and a large jump in Wyndham, up by 36.3 per cent.
